December 2009

I’ve written before about the story of my paternal grandmother’s Holocaust survival. In short, her father, a religious Jew, made friends with the local priest long before the catastrophic events that wiped out Polish Jewry.
As Jews from my family’s village were packed off to the concentration camps, this priest managed to forge papers for my [...]

We have a tendency to cast the spectre of anti-Semitism as a vast, amorphous thing that can never be quantified.
This means not distinguishing between an unpleasant letter to the editor, a school-yard taunt, an ill-conceived play; and expulsions, pogroms, and gas chambers. These are all conflated.
for some, they might exist on a continuum, but most [...]

As many of you know, I have a pretty high threshold for what might constitute anti-Semitism in the arts and media.
Please keep this in mind when I write that yesterday, while watching a play, I witnessed a truly vile depiction of Jews that initially made me want to launch myself from the back row of [...]

After reading the articles, read the comments below.
Robert Goot’s latest crusade
Albert Dadon’s piece in The Age
Dvir in his most recent spray
See also page 3 of this week’s Australian Jewish News
***
Now ask yourself whether the horrendous comments in response to these pieces are perhaps worse than the original infraction being complained about….
Along with the usual missives [...]

Yesterday, Liam Getreu, incoming AUJS chairman, wrote an opinion piece for the Australian that should serve as a model for how this community conducts its PR.
We need to remember that no matter how interesting and important we Jews find ourselves and Israel, the rest of the population generally has other things on its mind.
Except for [...]

Wow!
This is a stunning piece of writing from the incoming chairman of the Australian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS).
It’s pretty much pitch perfect, and some of our more seasoned leaders would do well to study it closely.
In the next post, I will analyse the piece closely, examining how the article achieves its aims so adroitly.

Sometimes, you just get lucky.
Sometimes, you can just sit back and watch your opponents do all the hard PR yards for you.
If you are a Jewish reader of this blog, please imagine that you are an average Aussie (ie a non-Jew without any interest in the whole Israel/Palestine imbroglio).
Now imagine yourself, in front of your [...]

Dvir Abramovich was at it again.
Yet another piece about how Jews and the Holocaust don’t get the respect they deserve.
Yet more responses from puzzelled or angry non-Jews.
Yet another attempt by me to demonstrate to non-Jews that Jews who cry wolf regarding anti-Semitism are not representative of the community as a whole.
Even I’m bored…
Or I would [...]

As many readers know, much Sensible Jew activity now happens off-line.
Right now, I’m waiting on the outcomes of some of these before writing the next post. Hopefully this will only take a day or two. If there’s a moment, I’ll write an interim post beforehand.